EDITORIAL: Facebook more 'rat' than 'friend'

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

In an age when anyone can e-mail, text or otherwise post their thoughts on the Internet in a matter of seconds, it is ironic that reaching the human forces behind these social media venues is virtually impossible.

We found that out here at the Delaware County Daily Times in November when we submitted inquiries via Google's designated press e-mail address, seeking clarification on its policy for blocking videos on YouTube in connection with Lansdowne Public Library's "Read It" parody of a Michael Jackson song. To this day, we've never received a response, but no one was physically harmed.

The stakes are much higher for a prosecution witness in a drug case who, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, says has had her life threatened via a convicted felon's Facebook page.

She was arrested a year ago as part of an on-going effort by Philadelphia police to uncover people, including Delaware County residents, who make "straw purchases" of firearms and illegally pass them onto convicted criminals.

The woman arrested last February agreed to testify against the suspected drug dealers for whom she said she purchased the guns. Williams said one of these suspects passed a copy of her statement to police, onto a convict named Freddie Henriquez, who, in November, posted her statement on his Facebook page and labeled her a "rat." "Kill rats," was the message elsewhere on his Facebook page that includes images of Henriquez and his friend, David Ruiz, calling for all "rats" to be killed "point blank period".

"Henriquez's obvious intent was to intimidate this young woman into not testifying in this case," said Williams in a press release issued Monday.

Here in Delaware County prosecutors have long been frustrated by the culture of cowardly criminals who silence potential witnesses by wielding firearms and threatening retaliation. They are especially evident in Chester which annually has the county's highest number of murders, many unsolved.

Henriquez's actions are even worse, said Williams in a Feb. 4 letter to Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, because "he posted the statement for the entire world to see, potentially placing this witness in grave danger from anyone who has an ax to grind with those who cooperate with the authorities in a criminal case."

Since November, Williams has been appealing to Facebook officials to remove Henriquez's intimidating images, to no avail. He received form emails from Facebook's "Law Enforcement Response Team" on Jan. 8 and 15 stating Henriquez's images were not in violation of the company's policies. Of course, they refused Williams' request for human interaction on the matter and would not verbally explain their decision over the telephone.

Williams did have Henriquez arrested for witness intimidation. Monday afternoon, after Williams issued a press release about Henriquez's Facebook postings, some of them were removed, although the disturbing images of Henriquez and Ruiz calling for "rats" to be killed, remained. Williams, who said Henriquez recently posted $25,000 bail to get out of jail, does not believe Facebook "security" removed the offending postings.

"I take no comfort in the fact that this defendant was able to raise $25,000, got out of jail and removed some of the life-threatening material on his own, once his name was in the paper," said Williams. "This should have happened in November when this office first approached Facebook's security team."

Williams is now appealing directly to Zuckerberg to "not allow your user to conduct a campaign of fear through the use of your website" and to remove all intimidating images from Henriquez's page, since the Facebook "security team" failed to do so.

"Because of their refusal to take action, the intimidation and threat to this witness's life continues," wrote Williams in his letter to Zuckerberg.

Indeed, Zuckerberg and his "security team" do have the discretion to remove potentially deadly postings from their website. The fact that it hasn't been done in this case may be, in part, because human beings have been so far removed from the process that common sense cannot prevail.

It is only a matter of time - and probably, multiple lawsuits- before "social media" magnates will have to be more accountable for the consequences of their products. Some of their customers' lives may depend upon it.